Man sentenced in 2024 Redstone Township homicide
The family of Shawn “Sonny” Hriscisce had one word Monday morning for the man who killed their son, nephew and brother and refused to meet their gaze in court.
“Coward,” Hriscisce’s mother, Christina Campbell, told Sylvester Conaway, 57, at his sentencing in Fayette County Court of Common Pleas. “Just like the night you attacked my son from the back. Coward.”
Conaway, of East Millsboro, was sentenced to 22 to 48 years in prison after being found guilty earlier this month for third-degree murder of Hriscisce, 24, of Allison.
He will serve a consecutive sentence for aggravated assault for stabbing another man in the arm during the same incident, which happened outside a home in Redstone Township in February 2024. Conaway, who has been in custody since he was arrested 18 hours later, received credit for time served.
District Attorney Mike Aubele said the incident began when Conaway showed up at the house with another man trying to purchase drugs. When he was refused because of previous unpaid debts, he stabbed Hriscisce in the back and another man, Josh Kelly, in the arm.
As Hriscisce lay dying on the porch, Aubele said, Conaway drove off and threw away the knife, which investigators were later able to retrieve.
He was seen at a Sheetz later that morning, bragging about the attack, Aubele said.
“It’s not going to bring Sonny back, but I think the judge realized the seriousness of what had happened, the callousness of it, and he handed down a very appropriate sentence,” he said after the sentencing.
Campbell wore a T-shirt Monday bearing Hriscisce’s face and the words, “Forever in Our Hearts.”
“My son was an amazing child,” she told Conaway. “He wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for me. God created him for me, and you took him.”
Hriscisce’s family spoke of his kindness and generosity, remembering the way he helped raise his younger brother, Stephon, after his father died. Before he was killed, they said, he was doing the same with his own son, Kyan.
“My nephew will have to navigate life without the man who should have been there to guide him,” said Hriscisce’s sister, Jackie Thomas.
Like other family members who spoke Monday, Thomas asked Conaway to look her in the eyes.
Conaway kept his eyes straight ahead, toward the end of the judge’s bench. He offered no comment.
Conaway’s attorney, Phyllis Jin, pointed to his lack of prior criminal record or history of violence. He didn’t feel like making a statement in court Monday, but has still shown regret, she said.
“He has always expressed remorse about what happened that night to me,” she said.
Family members said Conaway’s actions had torn apart two families: his own and theirs.
“We are never going to be the same, because you decided to play God,” Campbell told Conaway. “…I hope my son is the one who meets you at the gates and denies you access. I hope jail is torture to you.”
After the hearing, Hriscisce’s family members were happy with the sentence.
“I’m satisfied with it,” Thomas said. “I mean, he’s 57 years old. He’ll probably die in prison.”
Campbell also never wants to see Conaway free again.
“I have two boys remaining, (Hriscisce’s) son and my son,” she said. “And I don’t ever want to have the tables turn in the opposite direction.”